The Pyromaniac and the Salamander
You burn me. They say
if you die in flames,
your shadow burns
with you and so
you may not
enter heaven.
I am heaven.
I burn you because
I am incandescent,
in me you have
your greatest wishes
fulfilled. Desire scorches
but it does not
crease the soul.
You are the blinding,
punishing light,
one may not love you
without danger.
You feed on homes
and ships alike.
I taste but to learn,
I consume but to
restore. My tongues
are tongues of wisdom,
and their venom
is hope.
Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 
…to be redeemed from fire by fire…